Migrating Configuration Database to Another SQL Server

[BrianBuchanan]

I'm following this

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... erver.html

I get to Step 3.4. I'm using windows authentication and did a "run as" the veeam domain account, and my DBA precreated the database. The connection to the database is fine, but it says "the database is empty".

Like duh, of course the database is empty. Step 4 restores the data and even says the database will be empty.

How do I get past the "database is empty" so I can get to step 4?

[soncscy]

Hey Brian,

I think there's just a misunderstanding here -- check the note about the needing the CREATE DATABASE permission. The DBConfig utility is about creating/setting the new location for the Veeam database -- if you point it at an existing database, it expects to see an existing Veeam Database.

Ask your DBA to drop the database and let the configuration utility make a Veeam DB.

[BrianBuchanan]

We can try that, but this note is from that page:

IMPORTANT
When you migrate the configuration database to another server, you must use the Microsoft SQL Server credentials that have CREATE ANY DATABASE permission on the target Microsoft SQL Server. For details, see Microsoft Docs.
After database creation this account automatically gets a db_owner role and can perform all operations with the database. If the current account does not have this permission, a Database Administrator may create an empty database in advance and grant the db_owner role to the account that will be used for migration of the configuration database.

We didn't want to grant Veeam access to the SQL Cluster so, as per that note, we had a DBA create an empty database and grant the veeam account db_owner role.

[soncscy]

Yeah I get that, but I think that's through the Configuration restore/migrate utility? The DBconfig utility has been strange for my team and we just pointed the Configuration utility at desired databases and it worked.

I'm not sure on nuances for the DBconfig utility, but my understanding is that this note is about other aspects, just from experience.

[BrianBuchanan]

I was reminded to mention Step 4

Step 4. Restore Configuration Database from Backup

After you connect Veeam Backup & Replication to another Microsoft SQL Server instance, the configuration database will be empty. You must restore the configuration database from the backup created in Step 2.

The documentation seems to be out of date. It seems to have been written expecting the database to be empty, but something changed in Veeam that requires data to be there. I think I'll open a case.

[PetrM]

Hello,

Yes, please try Harvey's suggestion. I'm going to double check the correctness of the statement about preliminary creation of empty database with my colleagues from QC and tech writers departments. I'll update the topic as soon as I have more information to share.

Thanks!

[BrianBuchanan]

I figured it out, I did Step 1 and 2 as per the docs, but instead of Steps 3 and 4, I ran "Configuration Restore". This restored the configuration to the empty database, and switched Veeam to it. (The program wasn't able to connect to the repository directly, I'm not sure why, but I copied the backup to the local system and selected it)

The relevant doc on it is here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110 it just doesn't list "Migration" as a use case.

[PetrM]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for sharing this information with the Community! Anyway, my colleagues and I completed to review the instruction provided on our help center and I can confirm that it is valid and no corrections are required so far.

Thanks!